iainkelly_writing 's review for:

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Martin J. Sherwin, Kai Bird

5.0

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

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It says something about politicians in general, and the political system in America in particular, that you come away from this weighty and detailed biography with huge sympathy for the man who built the most destructive weapon ever used in war. A brilliant scientist and thinker, trapped by petty, ignorant men, and eventually hounded by them into reclusive retirement. Oppenheimer comes out of this as something of a hero, a man who saw the danger of what science had created and warned against it's proliferation, only to be ignored and abused - and who lived with his regret until his premature death. A true Prometheus fable of triumph and tragedy.